Bishop Kearney boys basketball overpowers Greece Athena

The Greece Athena boys basketball team managed to hang with Bishop Kearney for two quarters. But once the Kings started to go inside on offense in the second half they were unstoppable.Bishop Kearney shot 57.7 percent from the field after halftime in a 63-51 win in the Section 5 Class AA regional qualifier at Bl...

The Greece Athena boys basketball team managed to hang with Bishop Kearney for two quarters. But once the Kings started to go inside on offense in the second half they were unstoppable.

Bishop Kearney shot 57.7 percent from the field after halftime in a 63-51 win in the Section 5 Class AA regional qualifier at Blue Cross Arena on Wednesday.

“There’s not many people that can match up to our size,” said Thomas Bryant, the Kings’ 6-foot-9 forward. “We try to take that to our advantage. We don’t want to just shoot jump shots or jack up threes. We want to get to the basket or get our bigs going.”

“That’s the way it needs to be,” he said. “When we get that kind of scoring spread out like that we’re hard to beat just because there are so many different weapons.”

Zac DiSalvo led the Trojans with 14 points, including three 3-pointers, and four steals. Teammate Anthony Lamb recorded 13 points and three blocks, and Deion Hamilton scored 10.

Athena jumped out to a 7-6 lead to start the game with Jay Sarkis scoring four quick points. Kearney closed the opening quarter on a 9-0 run, including a two-handed dunk by Bryant, to go up 15-7.

Lamb and Hamilton gave the Trojans a boost in the second quarter. Lamb knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, while Hamilton hit a shot from downtown and scored on an acrobatic layup to cut the Kings’ lead to 23-22. Alvin English scored in the post to give Kearney a 25-22 lead going into the break.

The third quarter is where Kearney pulled away. Anderson found Bryant open in the paint for a pair of easy layups to start the half and he started to catch fire. The big man scored in the paint and from behind the arc on his way to 11 points in the frame.

“They’re awfully big and it’s very hard to simulate what they can do to you,” Athena coach Jim Johnson said. “I think our defense was pretty sound, but our objective to keep them out of the paint was easier said than done. Obviously, they have great size, but they also have a terrific guard who is very hard to keep in front of.”

Anderson scored six points in the third quarter, where Kearney outscored Athena 22-11.

The Trojans shot the ball well in the final period with 3-pointers by DiSalvo, Hamilton and Peter Florin. However, they couldn’t slow down Obokoh. The Syracuse-bound big man dominated the paint, scoring 10 points in the quarter to help close out the game.

Page 2 of 2 - Bishop Kearney (14-7) faces Section 6’s Jamestown in the Western Regionals at 8:45 p.m. Saturday at Blue Cross Arena. It’s a town and team Boon is very familiar with.

“I grew up there, I know a lot about Jamestown,” the Kearney coach said. “I’ve seen them play, they’re very well coached. They have really good guards, they can shoot it, and they’ll be very disciplined.”

After winning the Section 5 Class AA2 title, Athena’s season is over. It was the final game for the team’s two seniors — Braxton Wilson and Frank Carnavale.

“For us to win sectionals we’re really proud,” Johnson. “Obviously we have a lot coming back. These guys are really passionate about basketball, I feel we have a great future. Our two seniors were great leaders, they did a lot of the tangibles. I’m really proud of these guys, they were a lot of fun to be with.”